Helping Parents Through The Relocation Process

Are you considering moving out of Arizona and wondering whether you will be allowed to take your children with you? Is your child’s other parent planning to move with your children, making it virtually impossible for you to maintain a relationship with your child?

Contact me, a Tempe parental relocation attorney now to get answers to your questions.

Advising On Child Relocation And Custody Law

Under to Arizona statute 25-403.01(D), a noncustodial parent or a parent who is not granted custody of the child is entitled to reasonable parenting time to ensure that the child has frequent and continuing contact with the noncustodial parent.

Relocation disrupts this contact, as the decision to remove a child from the state will affect the other parent’s visitation rights. As such, moving out of state with children presents a difficult problem and the moving parent must establish that the move is in the best interests of the child. The child’s best interests are determined by considering several subjective factors, including:

• The past, present and potential future relationship between the parent and the child.
• The interaction and interrelationship of the child with the child’s parent or parents, the child’s siblings and any other person who may significantly affect the child’s best interest.
• The child’s adjustment to home, school and community.
• If the child is of suitable age and maturity, the wishes of the child as to legal
  decision-making and parenting time.
• The mental and physical health of all individuals involved
• Other factors.

In addition, Arizona courts must also consider the factors regarding the relocation itself.

Notification Requirements

When both parents are entitled to custody or parenting time and both parents reside in the state of Arizona, at least 60 days advance written notice must be provided to the nonmoving parent before the moving parent relocates the child outside of Arizona or relocates the child more than 100 miles within Arizona unless a provision for relocation exists in the parties’ parenting plan or by court order, which specifically permits or prohibits the child’s relocation. Within 30 days of receiving the notice, the nonmoving parent may request a hearing to prevent the relocation.

Quickly Hiring An Attorney To Prevent Or Request A Move Away

If you want to relocate with your children, or if the other party wants to relocate with your children, this is probably one of the most important times for you to consult with an attorney. If you relocate with the children without the other party’s permission or a court order, you may seriously affect your case if the matter proceeds to court. Courts may even grant the other party custody of the children on a temporary basis while a case is pending.

On the other hand, if the other party is planning to relocate with the children, and you oppose the move, you should immediately file an action in the court to prevent the relocation. It is common for the courts to preclude a party from relocating with the children if the move has not taken place yet, as opposed to requiring a party who already moved with the children to move back if an action was not timely filed to prevent such move.

Contact An Experienced Lawyer

In Arizona courts, your rights must be asserted immediately if you want to relocate with the children, you have received notice that the other party is seeking to relocate, or the other party has already relocated.

As an Arizona child moving and custody lawyer, I have extensive experience helping parents argue against and for relocating their children. In the many relocation cases I have argued, I have been successful in ALL but one. I take a personal interest in these types of cases because of the stakes involved. To learn more about how I can immediately help you. Contact me today.